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  • Shadowscream 188 to 195 experience

    Well, at 275 wisdom/265 strength, I went through 96 combines on shadowscream today at 193 skill.

    Got two skill ups. :P

    I still have a couple extra stacks of substances left over. I combined till I ran out of shadows, of which I had 192. The owlbears dropped substances pretty quickly, but the wolves dropped quite a few stacks less. I figure that with my 61 shaman and his pet and my monk bot, I killed them at more or less the same rate, but wolves are tougher than owlbears. I'm not sure how much that really affected my substance collection rate. Do the wolves drop less, or do I kill them that much slower, or both? Can't really be sure, but some others feel wolves drop less too.

    I figure it took me, not counting any combines and subcombines, to get smithing from 188 to 195(I did 188 to 193 in other sessions, with their own tally of substances and shadows spent) over 30 hours of camping drops. Five hours per point wouldn't be far wrong. Add to that the time spent questing the hammer and anvil, and we're talking some pretty serious time spent. And when PoK crashed and was reset today, my hammer and and anvil were in the forge, and I lost them. The GM logged after sending me a hotkey to /petition. Hung around for a while, and when it became clear the GM wasn't coming back, I ... well actually I crashed again. So I quested up the hammer and anvil again after getting my courage up, not too impressed with customer service. Add in some more hours.

    So if 188 to 240 is 52 points, multiply that by 5 hours per point and I'm looking at 260 hours. That's six and a half 40-hour weeks.

    Sickles are starting to look a little less nightmarish, if I can possibly get up enough money to ever do many of them.

  • #2
    I have recently gotten to 192 in smithing with a half elf. Yes a half elf. Now isn't that crazy?

    I found that owlbears are much easier to kill than dogs. Even as a paladin, I can run around collecting bears, stop, turn and start turning on attack to get rid of them. After a long fight in a screen full of owlbears, I loot up.

    I can't do that with dogs unless I want to possibly do a CR. Even at level 63.

    As for time spent trying to GM smithing, I don't even want to think about it.

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    • #3
      In my opinion, there is no noticeable difference in the drop rates of substances between bears and wolves. Bears are easier to kill so you can kill more which equals more substances. That's the only difference from my point of view.

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      • #4
        bears >> wolves

        i usually just camp the 1hut island, and can say from doing countless sessions, that the owlbears do indeed drop more substance than their wolf compatriots. its not glaringly obvious unless you do it in a closed model.

        i can usually pull 2-4 "stones" per 13 spawn rotation of the island with owlbears.

        conversely, the wolves will avg about 1-3 "stones" per rotation

        now i do get the usual spike, where i do a rotation for either and no "stone" drops, or i get lucky and 4-6 will drop in a single rotation, but that is rare.

        so kill for kill, i have to say after farming approximately 20 stacks of each, that the wailing substance is generally "slightly" more plentiful on the island camps.

        -Frynque

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        • #5
          752 combines to 209.

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          • #6
            I am actually farming the war with my paladin (level 54 human) to make humming orbs for skill ups (placing them on a mule for my wizard to use to get to 200). So far, I have about 4 10-slot bags of orbs that I have made (still not trivial - started at 137), and I have not failed a large number of them...perhaps 5%. The hounds DO drop significantly less than the bears. I camp the big island (yes, with a self-buffed 54 paladin, you can solo the big island almost to completion while waiting on repops) and have more than a stack of excess wailing. The dogs only take longer to kill because they run faster than the bears. =/ I have tried to go to the north and east camps but those mobs are much harder (and higher level). So here I camp them, waiting for the dogs.
            Uban the Wizard
            Luclin (formerly of Stormhammer (formerly of Bristlebane))

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Mahlig
              The dogs only take longer to kill because they run faster than the bears. =/
              If you're farming with a paladin, why are you letting them run at all? You've got root, there's no reason to chase the dogs across half the zone... Sure, root will break for some of them, but it does help a lot...

              My experiences actually seem to be almost the opposite of other people here; I usually get almost exactly the same rate from the owlbears and wolves, and when there's a significant imbalance, it's almost always in favor of the wolves. I can usually kill the wolves slightly faster, as long as there's not a stalker nearby; they seem to have fewer HP than the owlbears.

              For the record, I'm a 57 enchanter, I use my 55th level animation spell. I find a fairly central location to pull to and use tash to pull the spawns one by one to that spot, root, get hit once, and let my animation go to town while I pull the next. Given that I don't have any AE DD spells (or the HP to tank more than a couple at a time for any length of time), this seems like the best available solo method for me... My animation rarely gets below 90% HP unless I've been chain pulling for quite a while.
              Velurian
              70 Enchanter, E'ci

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              • #8
                Talk with your friendly neighborhood druid/cleric/wizzard and see about forming an AE pair. Usually I can get one of the 3 to help with promise they can have meats, pelts worth anything, and a small donation. Worth it to me when I can get a few stacks per hour for a few pp and other loot I wouldnt take anyway. Cleric IMHO is best. anything upheaval doesnt kill he can easily melee to death.

                Silound
                Minstrel of Prexus

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                • #9
                  When I was doing shadowscream, my stats were substantially higher (355 int), but I was getting 1 skill-up every 9-10 combines on average. 2 in 96 is shockingly low, worst I ever had was 1 in 40. Sounds like you had a bad run there.

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                  • #10
                    I just did 6 stacks of combines(1 orb failure a stack) and got 3 skillups to go from 204 to 207. But I am thinking I was having a bad run there too....
                    Suva WoodFeather

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                    • #11
                      Pet class farming

                      You may want to see if you can have a pet class to come out and help you farm. Yesterday, I ventured there for the first time with my 65 shaman and was able to kill as many mobs as I wanted, non-stop. Had the zone to myself, so I summoned, SoWed, and SLTW'ed a pet, then pulled mobs as quickly as possible with clicky effects (Pox of Bertoxx seemed to work best). I often had 5 of the sonic wolves beating on me but a fungi tunic took care of the regen and the DoT and pet took care of the mobs as fast as I could target a new one and pull it. Sonic wolves slowed me down more than the owlbears simply because those silly fishing spears they carry cannot all be quickly looted and I had to be careful not to let bodies pile up too much in a single spot or it make it difficult to loot.

                      Just a thought, but pet classes seem to go like a blender through this zone, so you may want to see if you can hook up with one of them to help keep the drops flowing.

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                      • #12
                        I am a pet class, and indeed I am a shaman. I fight more like 20 or more mobs at a time. I speed myself, turn on attack and leave it on, tap each mob once, and run to the next one. When I get 15 or so or more, I sit someplace and if I ever have to, I torpor. Sometimes have to if I get a lot of wolves. Buffed and speeded pet works on some, while I turn my attention to my 60 monk, who melees through the pile of mobs trying to chomp my shaman. His kills are very fast, which helps keep runners to a minimum so my pet can stay put more instead of chasing.

                        I can certainly get plenty of mobs dead very quickly; that's not really a problem.

                        I will say, though, that what with the war switching so often in the revamped hollowshade these days, the shrieking substances are now the sticking point and the lynchpin of shadowscream for me, not swirling shadows. I can clear the isle in Twilight for shadows, no problem, so I'm as fast as anyone on that. But I simply can't get wolves for long enough before they are switched either randomly or by someone camping nameds. For instance, last week I was there about 11 hours and got about 40 shrieking substances.

                        Get this -- once when the wolves went up, I only got TWO shrieking substances before the zone switched. Someone else in the zone got only one, and another guy got only two. We were all cooperating together to keep the wolves up; one was a level 52 melee and four of us were 60-plus.

                        It's definitely my experience, too, that wolves do drop not just a little, but a lot less substances. When you kill them by the dozens at a time like I do, time to kill isn't the factor holding back collection of substances. At one point I had 240 howling substances and only 33 shrieking substances, even though I had had the zone almost completely to myself for many hours, and I know all about killing and protecting defenders, etc. The dead wolves are so thick on the ground when I'm done that it looks like they were AE'd -- but the substances are still scarce on them. After doing 752 combines(not counting failed combines where I don't successfully make an orb), I think I have come across a wide enough sample for it to have some meaning.

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                        • #13
                          As I posted above, I've been using my 55th level animation spell and pulling to it to kill the wolves and bears. I was sure an AE class could do better (or, for that matter, a class with a real pet), but I didn't think it would be all that much better.

                          Boy, was I wrong. :P

                          Couple of guildmates were bored last night (a mid-50s SK and a 60+ cleric), so they came to help me. The SK would go out and pull, the cleric and I would centrally locate ourselves and wait for the mob. (Mob in the usual sense, not the EQ sense. )

                          Averaged 30-40 wolves per bunch, or slightly fewer owlbears (though the last time we had the owlbears was fairly early on, before we really had the hang of it, so we might be able to do that many at once for the bears too). Enchanter chain stun + upheaval rocks. Usually got about 8 or 9 substances per run, and the farming rate (in terms of # of substances) seemed to be a bit over twice what I could manage by myself, at minimum, over three times as fast once we got going.

                          Cleric was able to med quite a bit between waves, so we could usually do 6 or 7 waves, at least, before needing to pause for any reason but a lack of mobs.

                          Anyone know about how many total spawn spots there are on the islands, not counting the spawns up on the cliff? Was wondering if it was worth trying to convince an extra AEer and an extra puller to come so we could double the farming rate and clear the whole area...only problem then is looting them all before the next wave comes in. If only I always had such problems. 8)

                          Only problem is that I'm totally spoiled now and I won't want to go back to the old way...
                          Velurian
                          70 Enchanter, E'ci

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                          • #14
                            IN Hollowshade moor get the wolves in south and you shouldn't have that problem. I usually get a shreaking substance every 5-10 kills so they come in fairly fast if you are AOE'ing a bunch at a time(( do 10-20 at a time so usualy get 1-3 per AOE). Last time I got about 20 in about 40 minutes.
                            Liwsa 75 Druid Prexus - Retired


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                            • #15
                              I am a level 65 cleric. When i farm, i do a solo AE style.

                              Here is how:
                              Get a SoE (Spirit of Eagle) from a druid. I load several spells before i make a pull, and load my melee hammer. Also i buff myself with my self buff, yaulp, BoR, and Virtue.

                              1) Yaulp
                              2) Supernal Remedy (fast heal for quick heals during big pulls, 1.8 sec cast, 1500hps).
                              3) Catastrophe (Long cast AE. Quick Refresh. 850 damage, ~5sec cast)
                              4) The Silent Command (Short cast AE. Long refresh. 605 damage 1 sec cast. Stuns/blinds 3.0 sec, acts as a fear affect)
                              5) The Unspoken Word (Short cast AE. Long refresh. 605 damage 1 sec cast. Stuns/blinds 0 sec, acts as a fear affect)
                              6) Strike (1.0 sec cast, 8 damage, medium range.)
                              or, Blessing of Reverence (speeds spells up by 10%)
                              7) DB or fast root (Invuln or root)
                              8) DA (Invuln 18 sec)

                              Ok, I run by mobs and do one of two things to pull. I either hit my autoattack key and pull with one swing, or i pause for a sec, cast my strike to pull. I use strike for mobs inside the buildings so i don't have to go in. I pull a good train of at least 40 owlbears/wolves, but i try to get every mob on the islands if possible. I usually pull what my estimates are 85% of the island mobs. Once i have a nice train going, i look for a nice spot to stop and kill. Once i find a good spot to sit and kill them, i stop, wait for them all to get to me, then cast my "Unspoken word". All of the lesser bears/wolves die instantly. The rest have 10-20 health. Most of the time, half of them flee just long enough for your spells to refresh. If necissary, cast the heal on yourself (usually its not). I then cast "Silent Command). by this time, every dog/bear is dead. No runners, no clean up. IF you manage to miss one, melee them down with the hammer/yaulp. That usually doesn't happen though.

                              Using this method, i can pull in about a stack per pull at the very least. I sometimes get bout 2 stacks. With SoE, a pull takes about 10mins, and respawns are about 10mins? i think. Without SoE, i can only pull about 30-40 bears, and about 20 wolves, so my drop rates are a bit slower and my pull rates are slower. I'd say 12-16 in a pull was my average from bears and 6-8 from wolves without soe for a 15 min pull.

                              Why does SOE make a diff? Running speed. I can out run, and therefore kite the mobs easier for wolves and bears. Without it, i can gain room on the mobs, but when i stop to pull with strike i lose some of that distance. If i get too many mobs, and they get to me, they can stun me. If they stun and i have 40-50 plus, i have to kill them right there. Mostly because the mobs surround you and you can't duck/run/jump out of it. Also crossing the rivers becomes easier. If you get stunned in the water, you're not getting out without a difficulty, and usually have to kill the mobs in the water. That makes for a messy pull. This is also the reason i can pull less wolves than bears without SoE. The wolves are just a tad slower than run3. Sometimes when i make sharp turns to bunch the mobs up, they catch up and stun. While SoE isn't necissary, it is a huge help, speeds my pull speed, and also tripples my drop rate, and takes away any med time needed.
                              [link=www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=99471 newwindow]Stylx Phool[/link]
                              The Footstool of Brell
                              Q. Whats the difference between a pile of dead druids and a chevy?
                              A. I dont have a chevy in my garage.

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